Today’s mobile app developers need to become increasingly flexible due to businesses closely monitoring statistics showing them how their users utilise new features in corporate mobile apps. For many developers, this has become almost a full-time job, but in the bigger scheme of things, it is essential.
Tracking the trends and keeping ahead of consumers and corporation demand, understanding what their needs are for the next mobile initiative is time-consuming but necessary. Developers themselves are now playing sizable roles in digital transformation and cloud migration due to the increase of corporations looking to mobile phones as the new interface for business operations.
The trend of developer skills that are in currently in high demand is DevOps, cross-platform development, and agile and test-driven development. As far as programming languages Kotlin and Swift are at the forefront of demand.
In March of this year, the 2018 Think Conference gave developers the latest news and insights into what upcoming trends to expect in mobile development.
Here we take a look at the sessions at the conference and a few tips on what mobile development trends you should be tracking:
Think Conference Session – Moving Mobile Apps to the Cloud
This dealt with what experiences and more to the point struggles clients have been dealing with deciding what workload to use the cloud for. In this session advice was given on reasons for moving the cloud, and guidance and architecture patterns to help.
One of the benefits of cloud back ends for mobile apps is it enables mobile users to get away from some end-point security and infrastructure concerns and enables you to be on the right side of consumption-based pricing.
One of the drivers for migrating to the cloud is digital transformation now that mobile apps are the new front end to legacy apps. The main factors of concern are workloads, storage and security among others as with other cloud migrations, but start-ups find putting their mobile app back ends in the cloud benefits from economies of scale.
Think Conference Session – Delivering Exceptional Mobile Experiences
This looked into how to enable developers to create breakthrough experiences by getting the balance right between fast-moving innovation and operational control using the best mobile back end technologies like mobile analytics and push services.
User expectation today is that they will receive the same user experience (UX) with a corporate app as on a personal device. User engagement is today’s key ingredient.
A developers skill-set needs to include mobile analytics to be able to track how users interact with different apps and have the tools, processes and the ability to respond to feedback and potential issues/bugs and future iterations of the app in place.
Think Conference Session – The New Reality for Connected Workers.
Augmented Reality with Maximo Field Service Management
The session showcased a real-life IBM service they created for an early stage client, focusing on developers to seize the opportunity of what AR can do to inspire organizations to adopt the technology.
Augmented reality (AR) is now in the mainstream since the release of the iOS11 thanks to ARKit. When we say mainstream, we are talking both for enterprises and consumer apps.
The Think Conference pointed out during the session that app developers working in healthcare and engineering should be leading the way as both industries rely heavily on visualization and rendering of information. Operating theatres being at the forefront of their statement, helping surgeons efficiency from creating 3-D models of tumours, also this is useful in the field of healthcare sales as the salesperson can use AR with a 3D model of the equipment they are selling and do not need to make their presentation with the physical item.
Think Conference Session – Meet the Experts: API Design for Mobile Applications
This session looked at API from the angle of the data requirements of a mobile app from back end systems to record in the most efficient manner.
Application programming interfaces (API’s) are a rising force in digital transformation, and the key link between connecting mobile apps back end corporate data. For the ability to work with cloud teams who are moving legacy corp apps to the cloud that require corporate and BYO devices – A strong skill-set to have in today’s market.
Think Conference Session – User Experience: Mobile DevOps — Step on It
A fascinating session, bringing together developers from IBM to discuss DevOps challenges and give advice to developers in improving evaluation methods for their mobile development team pipelines.
Gaining loyalty of mobile users, mobile app developers have to realise that it’s a case of the right app, the right customer and the right time need to all come together in harmony.
The central message was to learn from users, listen and develop and deliver high-quality software and features that they didn’t know they need before they used them.
Mobile DevOps is a significant trend that needs to work side by side with business in a manner not seen before as in today’s business place, a large percentage of business decisions are technology decisions at the same time. Working closer together, the developer can deliver more on-point apps for the business community.
Work Closer to Improve Customer Experience
The trends listed above will help developers meet the demands for a new wave of innovative business apps that are in high demand.
Today’s mobile app developers need to get in close collaboration with businesses, UX designers and product managers to create on-point solutions before launching apps. This is the best way to gain insight into them, and the demands of its customers. The marketplace is moving away from developers throwing out generic apps and hoping to find a niche.
Author Bio:
James Row is a passionate blogger and professional software developer who started his career in mobile app development Melbourne, has a passion for informative writing, and looks to keep you up to date with the latest information about the industry.
